Sunday, December 02, 2007

Here are some more T. S. Sullivant drawings from Life. The ones from 1892 represent the earliest examples of his work I've found so far. They're more conventional, anatomically and in their reliance on cross-hatching, but still singular. The drawings from 1895 seem to be either edging slightly more toward what would become his signature style, or going off in another direction entirely.

October 20, 1892

December 1, 1892

May 9, 1895

May 30, 1895

October 17, 1895

October 17, 1895

I'd hoped by this point to be able to conclude the Fables series but I haven't yet got my hands on any issues from the second half of 1896 so I don't even know if there were any more of them. Whatever Sullivant was doing in 1897 must have been done somewhere other than at Life. His work appeared there only twice during the entire year, both examples of the illustrated puns that had been a staple of the magazine since it began. Through the first 17 weeks of '98, where today's post stops, Sullivant appeared only five times, though one of these drawings is a knockout center spread. The World Encyclopedia of Cartoons says that at some point near the turn of the century Sullivant began contributing more often to Judge, which may explain his meager output for Life in '97 and early '98. No matter. There's still another 25 years of his work to go through.